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Some nights, the shots don’t fall.

There have been some struggles at the free-throw line. But the CSU women’s basketball team keeps finding ways to win.

On Wednesday night, the Rams gave up 25 offensive rebounds to Nevada yet came up with two big steals and some inside baskets in the final five minutes to beat the Wolf Pack 71-64 before 1,202 energized fans at Moby Arena.

The win was the 11th in the past 12 games for Colorado State University (15-4, 7-1 Mountain West Conference), which assured itself its first winning regular season since going 15-13 in 2004-05 and extended its lead in the conference standings to a full game over Boise State (11-8, 6-2) and UNLV (9-11, 6-2).

“That was a character win by our kids,” second-year coach Ryun Williams said afterward. “You give up 25 O-boards and still find a way to win, I guess that’s just this group. They keep finding a way.”

The Rams actually won this one the way they’ve won most of their games this season — with balanced production on the offensive end that prevents opponents from focusing their defense on any one player or area of the floor.

Sophomore guard Gritt Ryder scored 18 points and pulled down six rebounds for the Rams, who had four players score in double figures and eight score five or more points. Sam Martin added 13 points, five rebounds and blocked five shots; Ellen Nystrom had 11 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists; and Elin Gustavsson finished with 11 points and six rebounds.

Martin, a 6-foot-2 senior forward, spent much of the first half on the perimeter, drawing 6-7 Nevada center Mimi Mungedi out of the paint to make room for CSU’s other players to drive for layups. The Rams scored 36 points in the paint to Nevada’s 26 and shot 44.4 percent from the floor to Nevada’s 35.1 percent.

But the discrepancy on the offensive boards nearly did the Rams in.

Nevada (9-10, 4-4) had 20 offensive rebounds to CSU’s seven at one point early in the second half, and the Wolf Pack led by one, 31-30 at halftime, and by as many as four points midway through the second half. Nevada scored 21 second-chance points while allowing just eight and held a 46-39 rebounding edge overall.

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“It’s frustrating when you guard for like 25 seconds and then you have to guard for another 25 seconds and another 25 seconds,” Ryder said. “And that’s definitely something we need to step up on; It’s not a skill, it’s like a toughness, which we should be able to do.”

Instead, the Rams found other ways to win. Alicia Nichols and Nystrom came up with steals on back-to-back possessions with about four minutes remaining to bring the crowd to their feet. CSU then got two layups from Martin and one from Ryder in a 6-1 run that put the Rams on top 65-60. Nevada cut the margin to one with a four-point possession with 2:02 remaining, getting two points on one basket and two more on LeSure’s putback after a missed free throw.

Martin made a nice layup at the other end with 1:32 remaining after Ryder tipped the rebound of her own missed shot to a teammate, and the Rams hit 4 of 6 free throws in the final minute to win a game that had 13 lead changes and nine ties.

“We kind of calmed down a little bit; we kind of got on a little run on offense, and we started getting a few stops, started rebounding a little bit and just kind of got in our groove,” Martin said. “... That’s what kind of helped at the end. Also, I think the crowd was huge; we built off the crowd, and we built off each other, and I think that was really big for our team.”